How to find your book’s target market

Editor’s note: I’ve received so many requests for a copy of this article from the September 12, 2012 Build Book Buzz newsletter that I’m reprinting it here.

Our recent newsletter survey revealed that finding your book’s target audience is a big problem for many of you.

It is absolutely crucial that you know who is most likely to buy your book. It doesn’t matter how well-written it is if the people who should buy it don’t know about it. And for them to know about it, you have to know who they are and how to get in front of them.

Finding your target audience is often more challenging for fiction writers than it is for nonfiction writers because so many novelists write for the joy of it instead of writing for a specific market. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong from a creative perspective, but from a business view, if you want people to read what you write, you need to write with your audience in mind.

Here’s how fiction and nonfiction writers alike can zero in on who will buy their book.

What’s your book’s personality?

Marketing professionals often assign personalities to their brands because that helps them better understand and reach the consumer who will be attracted to that brand. The person who will buy a product that seems playful, for example, might not be the same person who is attracted to a brand with a more scholarly personality.

It works this way with books, too. Your first task, then, is to determine your book’s personality. Is it male or female? Humorous or serious? Edgy or conservative? Mysterious or straightforward? Sexy or not sexy? Shy or friendly?

Take the answers to those questions and use them to create an imaginary person – a persona – that represents your target audience. For nonfiction, certain specifics, such as profession or health issues, might be more important than gender or income level. Regardless, when you know whether the person who will like your book is married or divorced, in her 20s or his 40s, blue collar or white collar, Catholic or Jewish, and so on, it will be easier for you to find that person in both the real and virtual worlds.

The good news is that with so many people spending time online, it’s easier to connect with your book’s target audience – or audiences, in some cases – than it was pre-internet. This is especially important for e-books. It’s important to understand, though, that your audience might not be online. You won’t know that unless you take the time to create that persona for your book’s audience.

I really like the way you have framed this by suggesting an author create an imaginary persona that represents her target audience. Thinking about a conversation we could have with someone who might be interested in our book would also help. I especially like the notion about trying to identify a persona’s beliefs and desires. Trying to meet these desires would be a worthwhile goal, I suspect. Giving our book a personality really helps it come alive. Thanks for the tips. Great as usual.

Hi Sandra, I liked so much about this post that you directed me to from the LinkedIn ‘7 things’ group. My concerns had been about defining an audience for a memoir that is not all about overcoming adversity, though there is that, but more a bittersweet story coming of age in the music business during the historical 60s.

The first suggestion might have been the greatest help: choosing a personality for the book. I think I’ve got it pegged as a five year epic.

The rest of the demographic and descriptive audience elements I’m pretty sure I can fill in. However, I might take issue with trying to cram all that into a single persona. For example, I can see a demographic that includes Millennials, because the characters are in their twenties; as well as veterans of the sixties, particularly those on the west coast.

This is a mere quibble and should not deflect from how much I appreciate this excellent post.

Have just discovered you on linkedin. Still trying to find my way out of the wilderness of first time publisher, into a place where I know where to find food, where to find support etc. to market my book. I am so grateful I have found such a well of knowledge and direction.

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